Stony Brook Battles Back But Falls in Semifinals to Albany

The Stony Brook men’s basketball team battled back throughout the second half, but was unable to advance past Albany, falling 63-56 in the America East Conference semifinals Monday night at Island Federal Credit Union Arena. After a tight first half, Albany pulled away in the second. The Seawolves got back within two on multiple occasions, but could not overcome the Great Danes. Stony Brook sits at 18-13 on the year while Albany moves to 21-12.

Boals’ Reaction
“I’m really proud of our guys’ effort, I thought we really battled and competed like we have all year long,” said head coach Jeff Boals. “We just came up short tonight. I thought we had really good looks, but in a close game like this, every shot, turnover, rebound counts and they made a couple more plays than we did.

Highlights

• Senior Lucas Woodhouse (Greenlawn, NY.) got the Seawolves going with a quick three for the second straight game.
• The two teams traded buckets in the early minutes with neither team leading by more than a possession until the final minute of the half.
• Albany used a 12-2 run to close out the first and head into the break with an eight-point lead after five ties and eight lead changes in the opening period.
• Junior Roland Nyama (Frankfurt, Germany) seemed to take back the momentum, scoring in the first nine seconds of the new half. Junior Junior Saintel (Mays Landing, NJ) threw down a lob from Woodhouse on the next possession to keep the energy in Stony Brook’s corner.
• A technical foul on the Stony Brook bench awarded the Great Danes five quick points after a pair of free throws were followed by a Devonte Campbell three, putting Albany up double figures for the first time in the game.
• The Seawolves did not back down and put together a 10-run over a three-minute span, capped off by a three from redshirt freshman Akwasi Yeboah (Chigwell, England) to make it a three-point game.
• Stony Brook kept the difference within two possessions until the eight-minute mark. Woodhouse responded with four quick points to make it four-point game and later drained a three with 4:29 on the clock to get the Seawolves within two.
• A pair of free throws from Nyama with 3:41 remaining got the difference back to two, but that’s as close as the Seawolves would get the rest of the way.

Notes

• Woodhouse led the way for the 17th time this season with his ninth 20-plus point game. His three assists allowed him to match the program single-season record with 158 on the year.
• Stony Brook’s bench outscored Albany’s 17-6 in the game.